Peri's Dream
by medicinecap
Summary: Peri and the Doctor land where dreams come true. Good and bad dreams alike begin to happen and the Doctor and Peri realize that they've both had dreams about one special thing. Doctor/Peri.
1. Something's Up

Peri B. lay down in her new room in the TARDIS. The first time she'd slept in the TARDIS, Turlough, a previous companion of the Doctor, had plopped her down in his bed to recover from a near-drowning experience. It hadn't been very comfortable, and she had awoken to see her stepfather (who wasn't really her stepfather at all, but a droid who was being controlled by the Master) telling her that they couldn't go home yet.

Now that she was an official member of the crew, Peri was given her own room just down the hall from the main control room, complete with a private bathroom. No tub, she had noticed, but she was too tired to get up and ask the Doctor now. Also, there was no wardrobe or closet. Too tired to ask. She sighed and crawled under the covers. They were light and fluffy, just like she imagined clouds would be. And cool, like the ocean.

Within moments Peri had fallen asleep. And, within moments she was rudely awoken by someone singing in her bathroom. A nice soprano voice, similar to her own, was singing a popular tune very loudly while a hair dryer blew in the background.

Peri sat up quickly, frowning. Why had the Doctor given her a room that belonged to someone else? In fact, why hadn't he even mentioned that there were others on board the TARDIS? She was going to have to ask him about this right away. She swung her feet over the side of the bed and was about to hop off when the bathroom door opened…


	2. Two Doctors

Meanwhile, in the TARDIS control room, the Doctor was working away under the console. Whenever his companions had slept, he usually took advantage of the time to give the machine a quick tune-up or add a new feature or, as he was doing now, repair it from some damage a thoughtless companion or an annoying adversary had done. In this case, Turlough had torn out a piece of the TARDIS during their last adventure without much care and damaged some of the receptors.

The Doctor, lying on his back with his head in the console, began to whistle. Suddenly there was a small jolt. He slid out, looking around suspiciously. No one was in sight. They had landed somewhere, he decided. He could just tell by the feeling he got. Years in the TARDIS had fine-tuned him to know when they were in flight and when they were stopped somewhere.

The Doctor stood up and was about to turn on the outdoor cameras to see where they were, when a stranger walked in.

But it wasn't a stranger. It was him. He looked like a stranger because he wasn't used to seeing himself walking around. And it wasn't another regeneration of himself, it was his current self, complete with striped pants and a cricket coat. There was celery in the lapel to top it off.

"Hey," he said. The other Doctor noticed he was there and stared. They stared at each other for at least ten seconds before the Doctor asked, "Why are you wearing my coat?"

"I'm not," said the other Doctor, looking down at himself. "What are you doing here?"

"Fixing up the TARDIS. What are YOU doing here?"

"Just about to check the coordinates and make sure we're on the right track."

The Doctor walked up to his other self and stood straight across from him, sizing him up. There was nothing different between them. Not a wrinkle, not a mole. Nothing was different, and he decided that it was, indeed, himself. Possibly from the past or future.

Right away, the Doctor ruled out the possibility of a past self. He would have remembered meeting himself if it had already happened. It had to have been a future self.

"Are you me in the future?" he asked.

"I was about to ask you the exact same thing," said the other Doctor.

"This is very strange," he said.

"I agree," he replied.

There was a scream down the corridor and both Doctors turned towards it, saying, "Peri," with concern. They looked at each other.


	3. Crazy Cricket

"Well, let's not both go running off to see what's wrong," said the other Doctor. "I'm sure she's fine. You know how women are, screaming at anything and everything."

"Yes, that's true, but it could be important."

"Oh," said the other Doctor with a smile, "She'll be here any moment to tell us what's the matter."

On cue, Peri ran in, breathing heavily. She saw both Doctors and looked like she was about to cry.

"There's another woman in my room who looks exactly like me. Would someone like to tell me what kind of sick joke this is?"

"Now, Peri, stay calm," said the Doctor, stepping forward with his hand outstretched towards her, speaking calmly like he would to a frightened animal. "I'm not sure what's going on, but you can trust me. Everything's going to be okay. Come here." He turned his hand so his palm faced upwards and looked her in the eye. She found courage there and took his hand, allowing him to draw her close to him. She slipped an arm around his waist and hugged tightly to him. He rested his arm around her shoulders protectively.

Another Peri walked into the control room. This Peri looked much less tired. She was wearing a different outfit than the real Peri. She had on lots more makeup and her hair was done up very stylishly as if she had had all morning to do it.

"Oh," she said, looking at the Doctor and Peri. "I'm glad I dressed up. Is there going to be a party?"

The Doctor and Peri looked at eachother, confused.

"Yes, score!" Came a cry from down the hall. A cricket ball came flying into the room, whizzing past the fancy Peri and barely missing her. A second later, another missile shot past them, this one clipping the real Peri on the shoulder. She cried out in pain, and another ball followed, aimed straight for the other Doctor. It caught him squarely in the forehead and he fell down on the ground, knocked unconscious. Peri gave a little scream, briefly worrying that the Doctor was dead, but the Doctor beside her quickly moved her out of the way of another cricket ball and she didn't have time to worry.

"Come on," he said, quickly leading her down the hallway.

"No, let's not go TOWARDS the crazy cricket balls," she said, trying to pull him back. He kept on walking and she followed, afraid to be left alone. They met another Doctor, this one standing beside a huge pile of cricket balls. He had a cricket bat in his hands and was knocking the balls down the hall, one after the other, with incredible speed and force. He was frowning in concentration, but would grin occasionally when he heard the crash of the balls on the TARDIS console.

"Stop this," said the Doctor, grabbing his other self's arm. "You're going to break something. You've already hurt someone."

"Oh, I say, would you mind tossing for me? It would make things so much easier," said the other Doctor with an amicable grin. Peri was mesmerized. He looked just like the Doctor she knew.

"Come on," said the real Doctor, grabbing her hand and pulling her along, farther down the corridor. She bounded along behind him, looking back to watch the other Doctor continue to throw balls.


	4. Crazy Peri

They practically ran into the next Peri. It wasn't a surprise to them. They had seen two new Doctors and it was time for another Peri. This Peri was sweaty and frantic.

"Quick, this way!" she cried. "They'll never find us in here." She opened a side door leading to a closet.

"Who?" Peri asked, feeling her fear rise to match the urgency of her other self.

"You!" the other one said, slipping into the room and shutting the door behind her.

"Me?" Peri asked, confused. Then she saw what her other self had meant. Three more Peri's walked down the hallway towards them. One was carrying knife, another a bat, and another had a gun. They looked just as frightened as Peri herself, but they also had a deadly gleam in their eyes.

"There's another one. She's pretending to be us!" screamed the Peri with the gun. She pointed it at Peri and the Doctor, her hands shaking. The Peri with the knife ran forward with a hideous scream. Peri flinched and hid behind the Doctor who was backing up against the wall.

Out of nowhere, another Doctor ran in front of them, his arms outstretched to protect them. The Peri with the knife was startled and tried to stop, but her momentum was too great, and she stabbed the knife down into the other Doctor's chest. He groaned and dropped to his knees. Blood rushed from his wound, making Peri sick.

"Run," he said quietly, then fell to the floor. Peri and the Doctor watched, their mouths hanging open, eyes wide with terror.

The Peri who had stabbed the other Doctor gasped and sobbed, dropping to her knees next to the Doctor's dead body.

"What have I done?" she wailed. The real Peri felt guilt stabbing through her just like the knife. She felt her stomach roil and wanted to try to fix what she had just done.

"Peri," said an urgent voice at her ear. "Peri, come on." The real Doctor tugged on her arm. "This way," he said, jerking his head in the direction they should go. Deeper into the TARDIS.


	5. Hot 'n' Heavy

They ran again. They didn't see anyone else in the corridors of the TARDIS. Peri slowed down, her breathing heavy. She began to feel a sense of dread as the adrenaline ran low. There was silence, but it was a foreboding silence.

From a room just off the main passageway, she heard a splash. Curiosity getting the upper hand of her fear, she looked into the room. She saw that it was a large room, bigger than the control room. The swimming pool. Inside, she saw the Doctor swimming laps in the pool. He was completely engrossed in what he was doing, and he took lunging strokes, coming up for deep breathes of air. She watched him use his powerful arms to push the water out of his path. His large back glistened and rippled with muscle as he plunged forward. He was a beautiful swimmer. Peri couldn't take her eyes off of him.

The real Doctor stopped running when he noticed that Peri was several feet behind him and she was no longer moving, just watching something. He saw that she was completely frozen and he feared that she had come upon some gruesome scene of violence or peril. He jogged back to her and put an arm around her shoulder, ready to lead her away.

"Peri," he said, but stopped when he saw the pool. The Doctor was vaguely aware of himself swimming in the pool like he did when he needed a bath. His attention focused mainly on the other person in the pool. Peri, with her skin glistening. She rose from the water, head tilted back, and pushed her dark hair away from her face. He stared as she glided slowly about in the water, laying back and kicking her long legs into the air. She was beautiful.

The Doctor and Peri might have stood there for hours, just watching their counterparts swim if it hadn't been for the noises they heard coming from a little farther down the hall. There was a playful giggle that caught the Doctor's attention immediately and caused him to shiver. Not a shiver of dread, but of pleasure.

Then there was a soft moan that made Peri jerk her head around like a whip. The sound made her heart race and she felt very warm suddenly. She looked at the Doctor and thought his face looked a little bit red.

"What was that?" she asked, going towards the sound. The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him.

"I don't," he squeaked, then stopped and cleared his throat. He spoke again in a deeper voice. "I don't think we should go down there."

"Why not, Doctor?" she asked. She smiled and raised one eyebrow, challenging him to answer her.

"Once you see certain things, there's no going back," he warned very seriously.

"I want to see," she said. He opened his mouth to protest, but she continued on quickly. "Besides, it may tell us what's going on here."

Before he could argue, she slipped off down the hallway and rounded a corner. The Doctor stood there in the corridor, trying to make the right decision. He spent most of his time silently calculating and making life or death decisions in a split second, but this was one of the few times when he hesitated and had the time to think over his options again and again.

"Oh, Doctor," he heard Peri's voice down the hallway in a soft squeal. He wasn't sure that it wasn't the real Peri, but he had a good hunch that it was the fake one. It was all that the curious part of his brain needed to convince him to go and double check to make sure it wasn't the real Peri.

He rounded the corner to see Peri leaning against the wall, peeking through a door. He sneaked up behind her and peeked above her head to see what she was seeing.

There was another one of himself and another Peri. They were both on a couch, Peri lying back and the Doctor half lying, half sitting. She had hold of his suspenders and he was leaning dangerously close to her.

"I've never kissed an alien before," Peri was saying to him quietly. He was breathing heavily, his hair ruffling her bangs. The real Doctor could feel his chest tightening just by watching. He knew exactly what the other Doctor was feeling.

"Don't worry," he said, "It's really easy. I'll show you." The other Doctor leaned down and their lips met. Peri watched her other self slip her arms up over the Doctor's shoulders and around his neck. She slipped her fingers into his soft hair and the other Doctor slipped his tongue into her mouth.

The real Peri began to breathe heavily and she gripped the doorframe, feeling what she knew her other self must be feeling. The other Doctor grabbed the other Peri around the waist and pressed himself against her. He kissed her neck softly and she sighed loudly. The real Peri sighed too.

Behind her, the real Doctor unconsciously drew closer to her until they were touching. The real Peri looked back at him, her eyes full of questions that only he could answer. The Doctor leaned in close, and they were inches apart.


	6. Doctor vs Doctor

Then, Peri was distracted by something directly over the Doctor's shoulder.

"What's that?" she asked. He looked back to see what she was staring at. A rather large penguin was waddling down the center of the TARDIS hallway.

"Oh, that. That's just my dream penguin," he said, unconcerned. "I should be coming along presently."

The two of them watched as the Doctor's prediction came true. Another version of himself, this one wearing a red silk bathrobe, joined the penguin. The bird looked at him and then pointed to it's own neck. The other Doctor reached up to his neck and found himself straightening a black bowtie. Then the penguin slapped it's own sides. The other Doctor copied it and found himself wearing a black tuxedo. The penguin slapped it's feet and the other Doctor stomped his, making black pants appear. He turned to the real Doctor and Peri and smiled, showing off his new suit.

"I didn't know I had a trampoline in the TARDIS," said the real Doctor.

"What?" asked Peri. The Doctor pointed and she saw a small single-person trampoline.

"Hey, that's mine!" she said. "It's always in this strange recurring dream I have about bouncing on it until I float up into the air and fly away. How strange."

"Wait," the Doctor said, holding up his hand. He thought quickly for a few seconds. "I think I know what this is." He took off running back down the hallway.

"What is it?" Peri asked, chasing after him. He didn't respond. Soon, he slid out into the control room. His other self, the first one he had met, was sitting on the edge of the desktop holding an icepack to his head.

"Ah, I had wondered what had happened to you. I was worried you had gone to use the TARDIS's secondary control room."

The first fake Peri, still well dressed, was tending to her hair. She caught the real Peri by the arm. "Honey, you look a sight," she chided her. Peri felt slightly embarrassed. "Well, it's a good thing you're only a dream. Nobody will remember it but me when we wake up," said the fake Peri.

"Only a dream?" Real Peri asked. "Doctor, what's she talking about."

"Well, she's right. You're both only dream versions of us," the other Doctor answered her question. "You're all just other versions of yourself that you'd have in a dream. There's only one real Peri and one real Doctor. Me."

"Doctor?" Peri asked, ignoring the other Doctor and looking at the real Doctor for help. He looked a little concerned.

"I think you're mistaken," he said to the other Doctor. "I'm the real Doctor. I was just in here fixing the TARDIS when all this happened. I remember everything leading up to the moment you walked in."

"What?" Asked the fake Doctor, aghast. "I just walked into the control room to find you messing about with the TARDIS. Had me a little worried there. I thought you might turn this dream into some kind of nightmare if you decided to fly us some place."

"I'm the real Peri too," said the actual Peri, "Aren't I, Doctor?"

"Of course you are," the real Doctor tried to say, but the fake Peri spoke over him.

"Sorry, honey, but you're not. I was getting ready this morning when I suddenly walked in to find you sitting in my bed. You're just a dream."

Peri felt the panic rising within her at the words of the other Peri. It was herself saying it to her, and she always believed what she told herself.

"Don't listen to her, Peri!" said the Doctor. "She's just trying to confuse you."

"But that's the problem, Doctor," cried Peri. "I could just be a dream. I don't remember exactly how it all happened. I was lying in bed, feeling so sleepy, and suddenly she was in my bathroom. I could have fallen asleep or something!"

"That's it." The real Doctor said. "That's exactly it. You're real, and you know it because you could have easily fallen asleep. Waking people don't have dreams. It's the people who are lying down and feeling drowsy who are most likely to slip into a dream. Just like me, when I was lying under the TARDIS. I could have easily fallen asleep while lying there. I remember a jolt that sort of woke me up."

"What do we do, then?" Peri asked. "How do we get out of it? How do we wake up?"

"Do what people always do in dreams, of course," said the fake Doctor. "Die."

"What, kill myself?" Peri asked, horrified.

"No, don't," the real Doctor said, stepping over to her quickly. "Don't do anything he says. I don't know what kind of dreams these are, or even if they are actually sleeping dreams. They could be waking life where our dreams come alive. I remember distinctly landing somewhere before all of this started." The Doctor jumped over to the console and began to flick switches and press buttons. "We need to get out of here."

"No, stop!" The fake Doctor ran to the desktop and grabbed the real Doctor, trying to restrain him. "You'll take us into a nightmare."

"Let go of me," said the Doctor, struggling with himself. The other Doctor grabbed his wrist, but he reached around behind himself with one hand and kept fiddling with the controls. Peri was unsure what to do, but she decided to help as best as she could. She ran forward and jumped onto the other Doctor's back, wrapping her arms around his neck. She pulled him away from the Doctor and he began to go to work, faster than ever. The TARDIS engine started up.

The fake Doctor recovered and swung Peri around in front of him. He was terribly strong and Peri felt afraid to fight back because she didn't want to hurt him, even though he wasn't real.

"Get out of my way, Peri," he said, roughly shoving her aside. Even when the actual Doctor didn't want her doing something, he was never that rough with her. He was always incredibly gentle. It was enough to convince Peri that he was in no way the Doctor. Her instincts kicked in and she tore herself away from the fake Doctor. He advanced on the real Doctor, but the Doctor jumped around to the other side of the TARDIS. They circled slowly and the TARDIS made a sick-sounding vwarp noise. Then, with a great wheeze, the TARDIS began to move normally.

The other Doctor lunged at the Doctor and grabbed him by the collar. Peri screamed. Then the other Doctor faded away.

The Doctor and Peri stood still, looking at each other and looking around, waiting to see if anything else would go wrong. Nothing did. They both sighed in relief. The Doctor reached for Peri and she fell into an exhausted hug. They rocked back and forth for a second before he released her. He chuckled, shaken.

"Well, I never thought I'd have to fight with myself," he said. "That was certainly something I hope never happens again. I sure am strong." He smiled.

"But, what exactly happened?" Peri asked, still confused. "I mean, whose dream were we in?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure. I distinctly remember the TARDIS landing. Wherever we landed must have brought our dreams to life. You were falling asleep, you said. So we were in your dreams. But then we saw the penguin, which is a recurring dream I have, and you wouldn't know anything about it."

"So both of our dreams were brought to life," said Peri, nodding thoughtfully. She thought about the pool, which had definitely come from the Doctor's mind since she knew nothing about it. There was another question she wanted to ask, but didn't know quite how to phrase it.

"So, whose dreams were whose?" she asked vaguely. The Doctor turned a little bit red and looked down at the TARDIS console.

"I don't know all of them for sure," he said. "I suppose a few of them could have come from either of us."

"What about the one dream, with both of us in it?" she asked, watching him as he fiddled around with some switches. He took a long moment to think about his answer.

"That could have been mine," he finally admitted.

"That's funny," she said. "I thought it was probably mine." He looked up at her, surprised, as if that wasn't what he had expected.

"Well," he said, clearing his throat. "I guess we should probably get going."

"Yes, you're right," Peri agreed quickly.

"What do you say, are you up for some botany on Androzani?"

"Sure," she shrugged happily. "Sounds fine to me."

The Doctor punched in some coordinates on the TARDIS. Peri decided to say one last thing, but it took a lot of bravery for her to say it.

"Doctor?" He looked up at her. "We should dream together again sometime."

The Doctor cleared his throat one more time and looked up at her. His brown eyes seemed to be burning brightly. She felt the same excitement she had felt the first moment she met him. She was excited for their next adventure, no matter where it was.


End file.
